Amador leads Miller in race for judicial seat

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San Diego County deputy district attorney Robert Amador continued to hold a big lead over El Cajon trial attorney Jim Miller Tuesday night in the race for a San Diego Superior Court judgeship.

With 39.3 percent of precincts reporting, Amador had 58.9 percent of the votes cast while Miller was at 41.1 percent.

Amador had piled up 215,230 votes to Miller’s 150,424.

Despite more than half of the votes remaining to be counted, Miller was ready to concede the race.

“I hope that Judge David Berry and Judge Gary Kreep have a wonderful career,” Miller said, referring to the two candidates who won judgeships during June’s primary. “It doesn’t look like I’ll be joining them.”

Miller placed first in the primary with 37.9 percent of the vote, finishing ahead of two public-sector attorneys – Amador and San Diego deputy city attorney George Schaefer. Amador finished second with 33.4 percent of the vote to force Tuesday's runoff.

The race took on added interest after Kreep, a Ramona attorney who has openly questioned Obama’s U.S. citizenship, shockingly defeated deputy district attorney Garland Peed by less than half a percentage point in the primary.

Miller was hoping to become the second private attorney this year to defeat a prosecutor for a spot on the Superior Court bench.

“The establishment woke up and realized they are beatable when Mr. Kreep beat Mr. Peed, and they rallied around their guy as best they could,” Miller said.

Miller was critical of the San Diego County Bar Association, which said he was “lacking qualifications” in its judicial candidate ratings released before the election.

Amador was rated as “well qualified.”

Miller said when the bar published its ratings it amounted to an endorsement for Amador.

“I don’t think its appropriate for the bar to spend money in a political campaign for judge when its one member over another,” Miller said. “They say they’re disseminating information, but it doesn’t pass the smell test.”